Graduation Rates and
Contributing Factors in CTE
Students Versus Traditional
Academic Students

Proceedings of 2013 CREATE Conference

November 2013
Young Bin Lim
Sean Owen, PhD
Alexis Nordin

Lim, Owen, Nordin

Graduation Rates and Contributing
Factors in CTE Students Versus
Traditional Academic Students
Young Bin Lim
Mississippi State University
Sean Owen, Ph.D.
Mississippi State University
Alexis Nordin
Mississippi State University

This study examined the impact of various career and technical education (CTE) programs and student
demographics on the four-year graduation rate for a cohort of 15470 students entering secondary public school
programs in Mississippi in the 2007-2008 academic year. Participation in one or more CTE classes increased
the likelihood of on-time graduation, and a student’s choice of College & Career Readiness Career ClusterTM
affected graduation rate. Sex had a statistically significant impact on graduation rate overall, but when
examined by Cluster, sex was only significant in the Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources Cluster (where
females outperformed males). Race proved statistically significant overall to graduation rate as well, and in
cases where socioeconomic status and family situation were controlled, Black students outperformed White
students in select Career Pathways.
KEYWORDS: career and technical education, Career Clusters, dropout rate, graduation rate,
student demographics
Introduction and Background
Like many other states, the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) is exploring
students’ increasing interest in career and technical education (CTE) as a potentially powerful tool
in reducing the state’s high-school dropout rate, which the Mississippi Board of Education aims to
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Graduation Rates of CTE Students
decrease to 13% by 2015 (Mississippi Board of Education, 2013). Nationwide, students’ and their
families’ views about CTE appear to be changing, encouraging more secondary students to pursue
CTE credits and more secondary CTE students to seek post-secondary educational opportunities
or national certifications that they may use to secure family-sustaining positions and close the skills
gap currently plaguing U.S. employers. This skills gap is particularly concerning in Mississippi,
where job projections in 2018 show a majority of jobs will constitute middle-skills positions and
the state will lack workers to fill them (Jordan & Dechert, 2012).
Reducing dropout rates while simultaneously boosting graduation rates and postsecondary
enrollments among secondary students is an enigma currently challenging the U.S. public
education system. The issue also presents a challenge to researchers, in large part because of the
historic difficulty of determining and comparing each state’s definition of a “graduate.” Rumberger
(2011) has observed that each state’s previously insular ability to determine factors such as whether
and how General Educational Development (GED) certificates and student transfers were applied
toward high-school graduation rates impeded graduation-rate research, especially before some
federal restrictions were imposed on states in 2011-2012. Rumberger (2011) further explains that
“not dropping out of school is not the same as graduating” (p. 279), with various studies
supporting his finding that “completing high school by earning a regular diploma and completing
high school by earning an equivalency diploma … are not equivalent” in terms of economic
benefits to the student or his or her state of residence (p. 279).
Estimates of actual high school graduation and on-time graduation rates within the U.S.
vary widely, with Heckman & LaFontaine (2007) finding a variation from 66% to 88%. The
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) calculated the U.S.

Lim, Owen, Nordin
graduation rate in 2006 at 77%, well below the OECD countries’ average of 83% (OECD, 2008).
The National Center for Education Statistics calculated the 2007-2008 averaged freshman
graduation rate (AFGR) at 74.9% (Stillwell, 2010). For 2009-2010, the U.S. Department of
Education estimated the AFGR at 78.2%, with Mississippi showing a statewide AFGR of 63.8%
(Stillwell & Sable, 2013).
Public high schools’ graduation rates calculated using U.S. Census data, or Current
Population Survey (CPS), generally provide higher graduation rates (Barton, 2004; Barton, 2005;
Warren & Halpern-Manners, 2009). Calculations based on self-reported CPS data provide the
percentage of people who do not graduate from high school or are not registered in schools among
those who are registered and who are between 16 and 24 years old (Warren & Halpern-Manners,
2009). These calculations tend to provide optimistic views about high school graduation rates,
indicating that secondary school graduation rates are as high as 90% (Warren & HalpernManners, 2009). However, the primary drawbacks of using CPS data include reliance on selfreported educational data and the CPS’s equation of a GED with a high school diploma
(Rumberger, 2011), as well as the exclusion of prison and military populations (Warren &
Halpern-Manners, 2009).
Scholars who use non-fiscal state surveys based on the U.S. Department of Education’s
Common Core of Data (CCD) tend to offer more conservative calculations of high school
graduation rates (Barton, 2005; Greene & Winters, 2001; Swanson & Chaplin, 2003; Sum &
Harrington, 2003; Seastrom et al., 2005) and typically show lower graduation rates (Barton, 2002;
Greene & Winters, 2006; Haney et al., 2004; Heckman & LaFontaine, 2007; Seastrom et al.,
2005; Swanson & Chaplin, 2003; Warren, 2005). Scholars who use CCD-based calculations

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Graduation Rates of CTE Students
debate methodologies, such as those using cumulative promotion index (Swanson & Chaplin,
2003), AFGR (Seastrom et al., 2005), adjusted completion rate (Greene & Winters, 2006), and
estimated completion rate (Warren, 2005; Warren & Halpern-Manners, 2009). Warren and
Halpern-Manners (2009) have offered a comparison of CCD-based approaches to calculating
graduation rate, most of which (AFGR, ACR, BCR, and CPI) offer biased results if student
migration and/or grade retention are considered.
While their calculations vary, scholars do agree that the consequences of dropping out of
high school are stark, not only for students and their families, but also for their states of residence,
which experience negative repercussions such as increased crime (Pascopella, 2007), increased
poverty rates (Aud, KewalRamani, & Frohlich, 2011), decreased health (Aud, KewalRamani, &
Frohlich, 2011), and decreased tax revenue, resulting in an average lifetime loss to a state’s
economy of approximately $240,000 (based on 2008 inflation rates) for each high school dropout
(Chapman, Laird, & KewalRamani, 2010). Chapman, Laird, and KewalRamani (2010) reported
on behalf of the National Center for Education Statistics that the average person in the U.S. aged
18 to 67 in 2009 without a high school degree earned a median annual income of $25,000, and
some estimates were much bleaker (Chow & Whitlock, 2010)—well short of the estimated “living
wage” of approximately $32,000 during that time period (Chow & Whitlock, 2010). Aud,
KewalRamani, and Frohlich (2011) demonstrated that high school dropouts were at a significantly
greater risk of living in poverty (31%) as young adults than those who graduated from high school
(24%).
Further disheartening is the fact that those high school students who do graduate often do
not succeed due to their inability to meet employers’ specific skills and educational requirements

Lim, Owen, Nordin
of at least some postsecondary education. Unfortunately, among OECD countries the U.S. ranked
first as of 2005 in generating higher education dropouts, despite exorbitant spending on higher
education compared to countries in the European Union (OECD, 2007).
As a result of the substantial economic gap for non-high school graduates and the longterm, negative repercussions that may result from a large population of un- or underemployed,
impoverished residents, states are seeking creative ways to encourage secondary students to stay in
school longer and pursue college or technical training. Several states are expanding CTE programs
and CTE dual-enrollment offerings at the secondary level and have presented preliminary findings
that indicate CTE courses are of growing interest to secondary students. Moreover, the National
Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium (2013) has posited that
secondary students who concentrate in CTE programs far exceed the national AFGR and that
approximately 70% of students who concentrate in CTE pursue postsecondary educational
opportunities, outpacing their traditional academic counterpartsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;news which has piqued statesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;
interest.
Purpose of Study
In this study, we examined 4-year graduation rate data for a cohort of 15470 students in
Mississippi who entered secondary public school programs in the 2007-2008 academic year and
were enrolled in one or more CTE courses during their academic careers, with two primary
purposes: a) to calculate by Career Cluster and Pathway the impact of CTE involvement on
graduation rates for the cohort of secondary students, and b) to measure the influence of student
demographics and socioeconomic status on CTE graduation rates within the cohort.

5

Graduation Rates of CTE Students
The study informed the following questions:
1. What was the calculated 4-year graduation rate for Mississippi’s CTE students in the 20072008 cohort, and how did it compare to the State-reported graduation rate for all students,
including both academic and CTE students?
2. What was the 4-year graduation rate by Career Cluster and Pathway for Mississippi’s CTE
students in the 2007-2008 cohort?
3. Which Clusters and Pathways in Mississippi had 4-year graduation rates for CTE students
in the 2007-2008 cohort that met or exceeded the national AFGR for 2007-2008
programs?
4. Which CTE Pathways for students in the 2007-2008 cohort defied typically observed
achievement gaps for female and racial minority students?
5. What were the influences of sex, race, socioeconomic status, and family situation on 4-year
graduation rates for CTE students?
Literature Review
CTE’s Impact on Secondary Graduation: Three States
Rumberger (2011) noted that in 2004 the average high school graduate earned 3.5 CTE
credits though only two states required CTE courses of their secondary students as of 2007,
suggesting widespread participation in CTE. This finding may indicate that state-defined CTE
courses are not limited to courses in the 16 nationally recognized CTE Career Clusters, meaning
states may have a broader definition of which courses are designated as CTE (such as general
health courses) than those officially defined as Career Pathway courses by the U.S. Department of
Education’s Office of Vocational and Adult Education; nevertheless, interest in CTE, or at least

Lim, Owen, Nordin
certain Career Clusters, seems to be building. The National Center for Education Statistics
reported that student participation in computer technology, health care, communications
technology, child care and education, and protective services grew an average of 0.04–0.25 credits
between 1990 and 2005 (NCES, 2013). Proponents of CTE programs in states such as California,
Georgia, and Texas have taken note, exploring the potential of CTE to reduce student attrition.
California has instituted Linked Learning (formerly known as Multiple Pathways) as a
CTE-based alternative to the comprehensive high school model. According to Rosin and Frey
(2009), some students of traditional high schools “simply get lost and others see the curriculum as
irrelevant” in a state where “[s]tudent disengagement is a problem, illustrated in part through high
dropout rates,” with approximately 19% of secondary students dropping out (p. 2). In response,
the Linked Learning model combines core academic and CTE components with work-based
learning and support services. With encouragement from state legislators and local universities
such as California State University and the University of California—which from 2003 to 2008
increased by more than threefold the number of secondary CTE classes that met the universities’
aligned admission eligibility requirements—the state has seen benefits from Linked Learning, with
more students passing the mandatory state high school exit examination and fulfilling minimum
entry requirements for universities in California (Rosin & Frey, 2009). Rosin and Frey (2009) cite
as further evidence a recent study showing that students from 16 sites implementing Linked
Learning approaches demonstrated better interpersonal and problem-solving skills. The study’s
authors found additional benefits for high-risk males from CTE schools in long-term employment
and earnings—a trend other states wish to emulate.

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Graduation Rates of CTE Students
According to Chow and Whitlock (2010), Georgia’s Central Educational Centers (CEC)
have flourished across the state since 2000, when the state’s first charter school based on Joe
Harless’s theory of human performance technology opened in Coweta County, with half of the
county’s graduating seniors in 2009 participating in a CEC program. The CEC programs
promote dual-credit secondary CTE classes based on local employers’ needs, encouraging students
to apply their CTE credits to postsecondary pursuits. To date, Chow and Whitlock (2010)
observed that the CEC programs seem to be succeeding, particularly in Coweta County, where
local officials credit CEC with attracting more jobs and industries—such as Yamaha and the
Cancer Treatment Centers of America—to the area, prompting officials in Baton Rouge to
implement a similar model. Chow and Whitlock (2010) further noted that not only have dropout
rates fallen in CEC schools, but “analysis suggests that the overall school district high school cost
structure is lower, and high school student achievement higher, than other comparable
communities without a CEC-type initiative” (p. 132).
Texas has also experienced success with using CTE courses as a method to improve
graduation rates. A recent feature in Education Week lauded the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo
Independent School District for reducing its secondary student dropout rate by almost 90%
between 2006 and 2012 after establishing a new school that offered dual-credit CTE courses to
recent dropouts. In five years, the school graduated over 1,000 students who had previously
dropped out of high schools in the district, and the model has spread to other districts throughout
Texas (Maxwell, 2013).
Clearly, states are taking note of the potential power of CTE not only to reduce dropout
rates, but crucially to boost graduation rates. Our research indicates that not only does students’

Lim, Owen, Nordin
choice of whether to participate in CTE courses encourage graduation, but also their choice of
which specific CTE Career Cluster or Career Pathway to pursue may play a significant role in
boosting graduation rates.
Student Demographics on Secondary Graduation Rates: Can CTE Mitigate the Impacts?
Much is currently known about the link between student demographics and secondary
graduation rates, though less research is available about CTEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s potential to mitigate such effects.
This study examined the effects of sex, race, socioeconomic status, and family situation on the
graduation rate of CTE versus academic students within the 2007-2008 cohort. Each of these
factors has been shown to impact secondary graduation rates, and because individual family
socioeconomics often reflect the larger socioeconomic trends at play in their communities, we
chose to broaden the scope of our research to examine family socioeconomic status in a districtwide context.
Females in every state have lower secondary public school dropout rates than males, with a
national average of 2.9% compared to 3.8% (Stillwell & Sable, 2013). Shadden (2011) found that
females tended to outperform males among CTE completers in Tennessee. In a CTE context,
however, most research examines discrepancies among the sexes related to non-traditional
Pathways, especially the highest-paying CTE Pathways in science, technology, engineering, and
mathematics (STEM). Females are far less likely to enroll and become completers in STEM
Pathways, and they are overrepresented in Pathways such as cosmetology and childcareâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a trend
which has changed little in the past three decades (Toglia, 2013). Female students do comprise
86% of enrollment among the healthcare Pathways, which offer high-paying positions, but

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Graduation Rates of CTE Students
research points to factors such as socioeconomic status that limit female studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; decisions to
enroll or concentrate in non-traditional Pathways (Toglia, 2013).
Pertaining to the impact of race on graduation rates, Yates (2008) cited various studies
pointing to an alarmingly high risk of not graduating among secondary Black, Hispanic, and other
racial minority students in 2006. Conservative estimates concluded that nationwide in 2006 Black
and Hispanic students did not graduate at rates of approximately 11% and 22%, respectively,
compared to 6% for White students. Yates (2008) pointed out that Black students were also more
likely than White students to be placed in special education programs, lowering Black studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;
chances of graduating at all or with traditional degrees.
States with large Hispanic and immigrant student populations suffer an even greater
disadvantage:
Although data for immigrant students were available for only 2 years (2002-2003), their
attrition rates were significantly higher than all other groups, at 40%. Using cohort analysis
procedures rather than annual data, some studies (Johnson, 2005) have reported that more
than half of Hispanic students fail to complete high school. These are, of course, critical
and tragic evidences of a failure to meet the educational needs of non-White, poor, and
immigrant students. Moreover, these data indicate a crisis for the nation when considered
in the context of the changing demography. (Yates, 2008, p. 7)
In 2009-2010, Stillwell and Sable (2013) found the 2009-2010 AFGR for White students was 83%,
compared to approximately 71% for Hispanic students and 66% for Black students, a concern for
Mississippi with a population consisting of approximately 37% Black residents (U.S. Census
Bureau, 2013).

Lim, Owen, Nordin
Along with sex and race, a student’s family socioeconomic status, commonly measured by
free or reduced price lunch eligibility and parental education, has been shown to affect graduation
rates (Pascopella, 2007; Yates, 2008), and lower family income has been linked to higher CTE
participation (Palmer & Gaunt, 2007). Pascopella (2007) surmised that poor students’ conflicting
views about how higher education pursuits stand to impact their families’ social dynamics may
impact their motivation to graduate from high school and pursue secondary education: “In
poverty, people are mainly driven by survival and relationships, and maintaining relationships can
interfere with achievement. For example, attending college can mean giving up time with friends
and family members, and this can elicit the fear of losing others” (p. 38). Research also indicates
that students’ social living arrangements (whether they live with one or more parents, step-parents,
or other adults) contribute to their likelihood of enrolling in CTE courses, with secondary CTE
students less likely to live with both parents or either parent (Palmer & Gaunt, 2007) than
traditional academic students. Additionally, district considerations, such as rurality, may play a
role, as Kester (2008) indicated that CTE students from urban areas slightly outperform those
from more rural areas. It makes sense that CTE students and their families do not exist in a
vacuum—their prosperity is often directly tied to that of their communities.
Methodology
For this study, we focused on students in the 2007-2008 cohort that attended public
secondary school districts in the state of Mississippi. The MDE supplied our group, housed at the
Research and Curriculum Unit (RCU) at Mississippi State University, with one of the datasets for
this study. The dataset contained student-level information consisting of demographic and
socioeconomic characteristics and coursework characteristics of the individual students. The other

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Graduation Rates of CTE Students
dataset was obtained from standardized assessment data from the Mississippi Career Planning
Assessment System, Version 2 (MS-CPAS2) for the students in the cohort. The assessment is
administered on behalf of the MDE by the RCU. The two datasets were combined internally by
the Business Applications Systems department of the RCU for the purposes of clarity and
efficiency.
For calculating graduation rate, we needed basic information such as the number of
students in the cohort, the number of students who graduated on time (within four years), and the
number of students migrating from or into other schools, districts, and states. Students
comprising the cohort used in this study started 9th grade in the 2007-2008 academic year for the
first time. For this study, we had access to a filtered view of the Mississippi Student Information
System administered by the MDE. Our view was limited to only students who took CTE secondary
courses from 2003 to present. It also did not include the studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; total academic course records.
The lack of availability of the full student dataset made determining which students should be
included in the 2007-2008 cohort difficult. Thus, we needed an alternative way to determine the
students who were included in the cohort.
To determine the 2007-2008 cohort, we first chose students who took CTE courses during
the given year from our dataset. Next, we chose 9th grade students among those who took CTE
courses in the 2007-2008 school year. We repeated this selection process for 10th grade students
among students who took CTE courses in the 2008-2009 academic year, 11th grade students
among students who took CTE courses in the 2009-2010 academic year, and 12th grade students
among students who took CTE courses in the 2010-2011 academic year. Among that list of
students, we removed data anomalies. Examples of these anomalies are students with grade level

Lim, Owen, Nordin
data mismatches or those who appeared to graduate before the expected date. (Only 2.8% of
students identified as CTE according to the MDE classification and who graduated from public
secondary schools in Mississippi in 2011 qualified as gifted students. In our study, we assumed
that the percentage of students who actually skipped a grade was fewer than 2.8%.)
Our dataset did contain information about the students’ graduation year. Since we had
information about cohort and graduation year provided by the MDE, we calculated basic
graduation rate by dividing the number of students who graduated on time by the number of
students in the cohort. For a more exact calculation, we also needed to consider but ultimately
excluded intrastate and interstate student migration among schools, districts, or states using the
Warren and Halpern-Manners (2009) method. Since we did not have the exact intrastate and
interstate migration data, we used the number of students who were in the cohort and the number
of students who graduated on time.
In Mississippi, CTE courses are identified in two ways. The MDE identifies a course as
CTE if it is aligned to a Classification of Instructional Programs (CIP) code (“Career and
Technical Education,” 2013). For this study, we selected students who took courses that are
included in the classification scheme for CTE education created by the RCU (RCU, 2013). The
RCU classification scheme identifies CTE students as students enrolled in courses categorized in
career and technical education Career Pathways. MDE identifies students as CTE students as
students enrolled in courses that receive funding earmarked for CTE funds. These courses may or
may not be courses categorized in career and technical education Career Pathways. An example of
a Career Pathway CTE course is Concepts of Agriscience. An example of a non-Career Pathway
CTE course is Family Dynamics (Table 1). To calculate the 4-year graduation rates for Mississippi’s

13

Graduation Rates of CTE Students
CTE students in the 2007-2008 cohort for each scheme, we identified the courses designated as
CTE by the MDE and by the RCU (the RCU designation comprising a subset of the MDE
designation). Students in the 2007-2008 cohort were grouped according to those schemes for
calculation purposes.
Students were also classified by Pathway and district to calculate the respective graduation
rates for each Pathway and district. Once the graduation rates for each Pathway were computed,
they were compared to the national AFGR (74.9%) for 2007-2008 programs (U.S. Department of
Education, 2010). These rates were further separated by sex and race for each CTE Pathway for
comparisons against the national graduation rate.
To determine the influence of a student’s sex, race, socioeconomic status, and family
situation on 4-year graduation rates for CTE students, we used logistic regression. Students who
were enrolled for the academic year in one or more CTE courses within a Cluster Pathway were
included as part of the Cluster’s graduation rate. In the logistic regression analysis of CTE students’
graduation rate, the logistic coefficients for each Pathway were calculated without control variables
and with control variables for sex, race, socioeconomic status, and family situation. Control
variables were used to explore to what degree they influenced students’ graduation rate using these
selected student characteristics.
Findings
After the dataset was cleaned for this study, the final number of students selected for the
2007-2008 cohort using the MDE CTE classification method was 28044. This number was
inflated in our opinion due to methodological differences in the identification of CTE courses
between the MDE and RCU. As stated in the methodology, we selected the RCU identification

Lim, Owen, Nordin
scheme for CTE students. Based on our selection of the RCU identification scheme, the final
number of students used for the 2007-2008 cohort was 15470. From this population, 12552
students graduated in the 2010-2011 academic year. From these numbers, we calculated the 4-year
graduation rate for Mississippi CTE students in the 2007-2008 cohort in Mississippi at 81.1%.
This result was calculated by dividing the CTE students who graduated by the total number of
CTE students (Graduation rate: 12552/15470=81.1%) as summarized in Table 2.
This rate is considerably higher than the state-reported graduation rate of 73.7% for all
students, including both academic and CTE students. It is also higher than that of students who
took CTE courses as classified by MDE (M=77.5%) without taking courses that are classified by the
RCU as CTE courses.
Table 3 separates students’ graduation rates by sex, race, socioeconomic status, and family
situation. Female students’ graduation rate (M=84.4%) is higher than that of male students (M78.0%). This difference is statistically significant (p=.000) at the p <.05 level as shown in Table 4.
Reviewing graduation rate by race, Asian students’ graduation rate is the highest, but the number
of minority students is not large enough to compare to those of White and Black students.
Comparing White and Black student groups, the graduation rate of White students (M=81.9%) is
higher than that of Black students (M=80.4%). This difference is also statistically significant
(p=.023) at the p <.05 level as shown in Table 4.
Regarding graduation rates by family background, the difference in graduation rates
between single-parent students (M=80.2%) and non-single-parent students (81.2%) was not
significant, even though non-single-parent students’ graduation rate is higher. Regarding
graduation rate by economic background measured by lunch status, free lunch status students

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Graduation Rates of CTE Students
show the lowest graduation rate (M=76.3%), while reduced lunch status students show the same
level of graduation rate as that of paid lunch status students (M=86.3%).
The 4-year graduation rate by Career Cluster as defined by the National Association of
State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium (The Sixteen Career Clusters, 2013)
for Mississippiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s CTE students in the 2007-2008 cohort was calculated from the disaggregation of
the overall group. Among all of the Career Clusters, Health Science shows the highest graduation
rate (M=92.3%), as demonstrated in Table 5. The second is Information Technology (M=89.7%),
and the third is Education & Training (M=89.6%). The 2007-2008 cohort students who took
courses in the Agriculture, Food & Natural Resources Career Cluster had the lowest overall
graduation rate (M=74.5%). The second lowest graduation rate was shown by the Manufacturing
Career Cluster (M=79.2%). Some of the results for currently implemented Career Clusters were
low due to initial implementation in the cohort year. For example, the Finance Cluster had 0
graduates, and the Education & Training Cluster had 60 graduates.
The 4-year graduation rate by secondary school district for Mississippiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s CTE students in
the 2007-2008 cohort was also calculated from the disaggregation of the overall group. Of the 151
school districts, 83.4% of the Mississippi school districts (n=126) had a graduation rate higher
than the national AFGR (M=84.03%, SD=0.063). Results show that 16.6% of the school districts
(n=25) were not higher than the national AFGR (M=65.76%, SD=0.144). Table 6 provides the
complete results by school district for this cohort. Results from the spatial analysis (Figure 1) show
that the majority of the districts with graduation rates below the national average reside in
Mississippi Congressional District 2, which primarily encompasses the historically economically
depressed and largely rural Mississippi Delta region.

Lim, Owen, Nordin
The 4-year graduation rate by Pathway as defined by the National Association of State
Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium (The Sixteen Career Clusters, 2013) for
Mississippiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s CTE students in the 2007-2008 cohort was calculated from the disaggregation of the
overall group as shown in Table 5. Sex and race were also disaggregated from these groupings. In
the Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources Career Cluster (Table 7), most Pathways showed
higher graduation levels than the average graduate rate (M=81.1%), with three exceptions:
Agriscience (M=77.6%), Agriscience Introduction (M=75.1%), and Concepts of Agriscience
(M=70.4%). However, the numbers of students enrolled in Agriscience Introduction (n=1371) and
Concepts of Agriscience (n=1953) Pathways had the highest graduation rates in the Cluster and
had the most influence on the overall graduation rate of the Agriculture Cluster. In the two lowest
graduation Pathways, female students had higher graduation rates than male students. This
difference was the largest in the Concepts of Agriscience Pathway. However, the graduation rates
of both Pathways were lower than that of the average graduation rate.
In the other Pathways, some had lower graduation rates per subcategory. For example,
female students enrolled in the Food Products Pathway had a low graduation rate (M=50.0%).
However, the number of students was small (n=1). In Forestry, the Black students' graduation rate
(M=72.7%) was much lower than that of White students (M=91.9%). However, the number of
Black students in Forestry was 22, while the number of White students in Forestry was 111. Thus,
the graduation rate of Black students is not as influential on the level of graduation rate in the
Agriculture Cluster. In Horticulture, female students had a lower graduation rate (M=73.0%) than
male students (M=89.7%). The number of male students (n=39) and female students (n=37) is

17

Graduation Rates of CTE Students
similar. In Science of Agricultural Mechanization, Black students (n=34) had a lower graduation
rate (M=70.6%) than that of White students (M=84.2%).
In the Manufacturing Cluster (Table 8), students in Furniture Manufacturing Upholstery
showed a lower rate of graduation (M=69.7%) than average (81.1%). By sex, male students showed
lower graduation rates (M=66.7%) than female students (M=83.3%). However, the number of
male students in the Furniture Pathway was 27, while the number of female students was 6.
Female students showed lower graduation rates in Machine Tool Operation (M=71.4%)
and Welding (M=72.1%). The number of female students was 49 in Machine Tool Operation and
43 in Welding. Graduation by race in Manufacturing was similar between White and Black
students.
The results of chi-square analysis showed that, when considering overall graduation rate by
cohort, sex (p=.000) and race (p=.023) were statistically significant at the p < .05 level as shown in
Table 4, yet analysis results within the majority of the Career Clusters were statistically insignificant.
However, in the Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources Cluster, female students’ graduation
rate (M=76.9%, p=.008) was statistically significantly higher than male students’ graduation rate
(M=73.2%). Race (p=.000) was also statistically significant in this Cluster at the p <.05 level. Black
students’ graduation rate (M=71.7%) was lower than that of White students (M=76.3%). In the
Architecture Construction Cluster, Black students’ graduation rate (M=76.8%) was also
significantly lower than that of White students (M=84.4%), although Black students’ graduation
rate was higher than the statewide average. Table 9 shows all Pathway graduation rates for
students by sex and race.

Lim, Owen, Nordin
In the logistic regression analysis of CTE studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; graduation rate as shown in Table 10,
the logistic coefficient of the Health Science Career Cluster was the highest, while that of the
Agriculture Career Cluster was the lowest. When the dummy variable (female sex level) was added,
the coefficients of Career Cluster variables increased in Agriculture, Information Technology,
Manufacturing, STEM, and Transportation. These increased coefficients mean that female
students have positive effects on graduation rate in these Clusters. When the dummy variable
(Black race level) was added, the logistic coefficients of Clusters increased in Business Management,
Education Training, Hospitality Tourism, and Human Services Career Clusters. In these Clusters,
the Black student race variable has a positive effect on the graduation rate of CTE students. When
the dummy variables (female sex level and Black race level) were added, the logistic coefficients of
Information Technology, Manufacturing, Science Technology, and Transportation increased.
When the dummy variable for family situation was added, most logistic coefficients of Cluster
variables did not change. This means that the single-parent level of the family situation
independent variable did impact graduation rates of CTE students.
When lunch status variables were added, the logistic coefficients of Cluster variables of
Agriculture, Business Management, Education Training, Manufacturing, Science Technology, and
Transportation increased compared to those of Model 1 (all comparison models are based on
Model 1). In these areas, the coefficients on the reduced lunch and free lunch variable were
positive and statistically significant at the p < .05 level towards the graduation rate of CTE students.
The magnitude of logistic coefficients of free lunch was much lower than that of reduced lunch.
Thus, we can assume that the most positive effects come from reduced lunch students. One
significant finding was that the logistic coefficient of Black students changed from a negative sign

19

Graduation Rates of CTE Students
to a positive sign, meaning that Black students may show a higher level of graduation than White
students when economic and family background are controlled.
Conclusions
Although the studyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dataset was more limited than its initial vision, this study was still able
to achieve its original objectives. We were able to identify the graduation rate for CTE students in
Mississippi for the 2007-2008 cohort; 4-year graduation rates for students in Career Clusters and
Pathways; and graduation rates disaggregated by sex, race, socioeconomic status, and family
situation. The 4-year graduation rate for a cohort of 15,470 Career Pathway CTE students entering
secondary public school programs in Mississippi in the 2007-2008 academic year (M=81.1%) is
high compared to the national freshman graduation rate (M=74.9%) and the Mississippi
graduation rate (M=73.7%). Other findings of the study point to the influence of studentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; choice
of CTE courses on on-time graduation, with students in the Health Science (M=92.3%) and
Information Technology (M=89.7%) Career Clusters showing the top two graduation rates. This
influence is very positive news coupled with the National Association of State Directors of Career
Technical Education Consortium (2013) statements that approximately 70 percent of CTE
students pursue postsecondary degrees, which further promotes the anecdotal opinion that CTE
courses in secondary programs promote college and career readiness in students. The CTE
graduation rate of the 2007-2008 cohort also emphasizes the findings of Maxwell (2013) and
Chow & Whitlock (2010) that CTE programs of study increase student engagement and reduce
dropout rates.
Other findings of the study from the logistic regression analysis suggest that student sex
and race had a statistically significant impact on graduation rates for the cohort. However, these

Lim, Owen, Nordin
variables were not statistically significant for the majority of Clusters from the chi-square analysis.
This significance echoes the results from other studies in this area (Johnson, 2005; Yates, 2008).
However, the reader should use caution with this result, noting the scope of this study was limited
to a single cohort. Further exploration will occur in this area with other cohorts in future studies.
Other results from the logistic regression analysis indicated that socioeconomic status and family
situation do impact graduation rates, which was expected from the literature review of other
studies in this area (Pascopella, 2007; Yates, 2008). This influence affected disaggregation results
based on race when those variables were controlled.
The results of this study should prove useful in the promotion of CTEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s influence on
students in the state of Mississippi. It points to the unrealized potential that purposeful programs
of study in career and technical education at the secondary level can not only increase graduation
rates, but also create a college and career ready individual (Achieve, 2011). Curriculum specialists
should take note from the study that the quality of the CTE Career Cluster or Career Pathway, as
with any curriculum design, does play a significant role in boosting graduation rates for students
(Hill, 2012). Further research in this area should occur to validate further the results for
policymakers who drive the future development, design, and integration of CTE curricula and
academic curricula.

Graduation Rates of CTE Students
Stillwell, R. (2010). Public school graduates and dropouts from the Common Core of Data:
School year 2007-08. Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2010/2010341.pdf
Stillwell, R., & Sable, J. (2013). Public school graduates and dropouts from the Common Core of
Data: School year 2009-10. Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2013/2013309rev.pdf
Sum, A., & Harrington, P. (2003). The hidden crisis in the high school dropout problems of
young adults in the US: Recent trends in overall school dropout rates and gender differences
in dropout behavior. Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED479286.pdf
Swanson, C., & Chaplin, D. (2003). Counting high school graduates when graduates count: Measuring
graduation rates under the high stakes of NCLB. Washington, DC: Education Policy Center,
Urban Institute.
The 16 career clusters. (2013). Retrieved from
http://www.careertech.org/career-clusters/glance/careerclusters.html
Toglia, T. (2013). Gender equity issues in CTE and STEM education. TechDirections. Retrieved
from http://www.omagdigital.com/publication/?i=143174
U.S. Census Bureau. (2013). State & county quickfacts. Retrieved from
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/28000.html
U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2010). Public school
graduates and dropouts from the common core of data: School year 2007â&#x20AC;&#x201C;08. Retrieved from
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2010/2010341.pdf
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WI: Center for Demography and Ecology, University of Wisconsin.

About the Authors
Young Bin Lim is currently employed as a Graduate Assistant by the Research & Curriculum
Unit at Mississippi State University and is pursuing a doctorate in sociology. Sean Owen, Ph.D.,
is the Data Manager for the Research and Curriculum Unit's Mississippi Assessment Center at
Mississippi State University and is an Associate Research Professor at Mississippi State University.
Alexis Nordin is currently employed as a Research Associate III by the Research & Curriculum
Unit at Mississippi State University.